2013.06.01 - Left Turn At Albuquerque
The search for Spartan has met with little in the way of clues, or had, until Nate got ahold of the antique drone. It took time, but after a few recitations of his encounter with the psychic landmine Helspont left on the machine, Nate caught something he'd thought was a slip of the tongue before. Helspont called him Rose. Void, upon having this pointed out to her managed something like a smile or possibly a facial tick. Spartan was alive and doing what he could to scramble the information they were pulling from him, corrupting it as best he could if not outright lying. It was hope. The second break came from Illyana's tender hands in the form of a much soiled and terrified doughy middle aged man with broken glasses. After 'asking him some questions' Yana learned that he was a high ranking Roxxon Exec, and until two weeks ago had been stationed in Kuwait, heading up the refinement and distribution of the nearly the entire nations oil. His shift to the Comms Boat was odd but paid better with more benefits so he didn't complain much. There is spent an inordinate amount of time processing a much greater amount of encrypted data then he'd ever seen before, and he was pretty sure it was far more then Roxxon would ever need on it's own... Kuwait's refinement facility had, as the man found out, ceased to put out oil almost entirely as well, though it's work force had nearly tripled in previous months. He's been removed from the circle of knowledge there, but he still thinks that's odd. Perhaps the weapons division moved in or something and they were doing classified things? Void, upon hearing this, opened a portal under the man, depositing him in the middle of nowhere Kansas, and then turned to the rest of the group present, "I am searching for the coordinates to Roxxon's main refinery in Kuwait no-" before she finishes the statement, another portal appears, "I am placing you a mile out. Be careful, we've no idea what is happening..." Nate didn't sleep much last night. He doubts anyone did, really. But it was worth it. He feels strangely calm. Usually he would be much more hyper at the prospect of a fight, but he burned quite a bit of extra energy last night. "Roxon, hmm?" The Daemonites have gone corporate, they are truly ev... oh wait, Stormwatch has also gone corporate. He can't make the joke. "What kind of security can they muster?" He steps through the portal, but expecting the conversation to go on. Yawning Superboy trods through the portal right after Nate. He looks like he is still waking up his hair a mess as always and spiking out in random directions. For once though he isn't wearing tee shirt and jeans combo, he is wearing a fully body suit of pure black that leaves his arms from the biceps on down bare. The red S emblem standing out on his chest as always. New duds new day. Whatever he says also comes out as an incoherent mumble. Arriving on her motorcycle she parks it and enters Halo, entering the room and standing behind the others, one hand massaging her temple while the other tips back the large bottle of water and aids in what she is lacking, aside from more sleep. Already dressed in full regalia the red and black reinforced suit rests over her figure, though maille plated over her upper thighs as well as down her arms to just above her hands, shining the movable scales in a bleeding metallic path even down the curvature of sides to her hips. Across her back two swords rest in hilts as well as strapped to upper thighs some high tech pistols also are confined in their trappings to her person. Despite events of the night at least she remembers to be ready - it is like an automatic motion anymore, almost like the steps that carry her through the portal while she withdrew the inhaler from her tac belt and took a pull from it. She'd need this to keep going. Yes, partying all night was worth it. Don't hate. Jeffrey slept very soundly. Unlike some though, he has balanced the foundations of deep, restful, and long slumber with hair trigger alertness. He sticks with the jeans and white shirt ensemble mostly because its expendable. He doesn't quite lose his clothes the same way the Hulk does, but repeated matter shifts do sort of put a strain on the clothing budget. Kuwait. Sand. Soil. Dirt. Perfect. She even gave him notice enough to retrieve his vial. In this terrain it was unlikely he would need the sympathetic connection, but he had been caught out once without it. Never again ideally. He also makes a mental note to begin making requisitions from whatever armory Halo may possess. Strictly speaking he had never been much of a top marksman to begin with, but guns often made things less messy than the use of his own power. He cracks his knuckles and gives a couple of slight hops. Just to make sure he's limber. Ready to march though the portal and all that. He isn't one to ask many questions. He simply nods at Void's decision on their dropzone. Carin was simply tagging along. There was a portal flash and boom she was zipping along behind without much more question. Which might be a sad comment on her lack of activity outside the tower.. But eh, didn't look like having a life was paying off well for /some people/. A snicker as she recalled the pepper incident last night and a wave was offered to Rose. "Ello hotstuff." Kuwait is... meh, this portion of it anyway, is a flat nothing of interspersed hard packed dusty soil like baked clay, with what appear to be randomly jutting mountains built entirely out of sand popping up without explanation or reason, and even these seem to bare large black sharp edge rocks mixed in amid the grains. Really, it looks very inhospitable. Before the group is a mound of sand, and upon it's peek one can see why Void used this as a place to put the team. The refinery is /enormous/. A mile away one can see the single road that comes in and our of the complex, can see the portable concrete median barricades built along the road's edges, can see the great fence with it's warning signs with wee lightning bolts on them. There are guard towers placed equidistant around the edge, a pair of men to each of the towers, armed with rifles and a mounted heavier weapon is attached to the towers just for good measure. Beyond all of that, is a massive complex with machinery that's loud even this far out. Nearly a half mile on a side and five stories tall, the building is going to be /hell/ to search, and if the security is any indication, not easy to do so undetected. It's a fortress. It is also pretty sunny, and hot. Nate takes a breath and grins. New place is... always interesting. They might end up frying there, though. "Rose, sure hope that armor of yours has life support." He loses most of the smirk at seeing the huge industrial complex. "Security, and stuff... I could astral-project and look inside. But how quickly could you go over something that big searching for someone?" He asks Velocity. Superboy is already looking at the walls with X-Ray vision as soon as Nate says look inside. "We should go by our codenames. We're on mission." Time for serious! Not really he's just having an insightful moment and trying to make this team thing happen. "We could just... knock?" A grin appears on his features. Kon's idea of knock is obvious. Carin's presence made Ravager pause, her chipperness seemed to pound down on her brain like a jackhammer on New Yorks old subway system. Echo and all. The quip that could have been taken as a compliment is meant with the slow downward fall of the water bottle in descent from her lips where it is likely to not go far from due to dehydration and... A desert. This is not only going to suck, but be hot on top of it. Don't poke the hungover Rose, it has thorns a mile encircling. "Friendly fire happens, it'd be sad to have it occur so early." Ravager states lashing the bottle out at Carin to attempt to splash her again, but not too much, she's seen movies like this, they may need her water to last weeks for their very survival! Once that is said and done she is pausing to look up, her eyes avoiding the glare of sunlight to only trail in a snappy motion oveer the ridges and then the line of fencing as well as along the towers in a slow crawl upwards and away, her pulse already on the rise due to the altering drug she had taken. "If they have a/c beyond that gate, that's another perk to breaking through. Let's get this over with fast." At Nate's comment Ravager lifts a brow and sends a glance his way that narrows into a teasing glare. "I don't want to think about it." She states as she starts moving towards the gates, her fingers flexing in 'trigger-happy' twitches. "Someone want to give me a boost. I'll knock." Alright. it is, as they same, time to go to work. What is 'meh' to others is paradise to Jeff, especially given the context of their last mission. Jeffrey drops into a crouch, running his hand through sand and rock, smoothing it out, letting it pass through his hands. He then does something that might seem a little strange, removing his shoes and tossing them through the portal as it closes. It makes the expansion of his senses all that more acute, the presence of bare skin against his skin. "I can give you how many are moving around, though I'm not sure how much visual advantage I can give. Can't look through ferrous stuff." He explains even as the absorbs the ground beneath him into himself, creating his golem facsimile of flesh transmuted to multi-layer ceramic armor. Which has the added benefit of not cooking his insides. Like a certain robot did when he was forced to weld all that metal onto himself. "I can tunnel in and hit them wherever. I'm not as fast as Velocity, but unless they are blatantly looking for them they shouldn't notice the ground shift." Molecular tunneling after all, is kind of an awesome thing. Velocity wasn't exactly as perky as she could be, but having that roadrunner metabolism didn't leave for a whole lot of slow starts to the days either. Though thorny or not, there was a certain fun to the whole 'push the button' mentality when it can to the Oh so serious ones. Maybe her brain box needed checking. A small smirk as she dipped left from the splash and then a pause as the building was considered. "Knock, huh? What exactly are we trying /not/ to blow up this time?" Features tilted up as she eyes narrowed on the watch towers.. someone had to be home, right? Nate considers the direct and destructive approach and, appealing as it is... "maybe we should try to find Spartan before picking a fight, they might try to use him as a hostage, or just kill him if it looks like we are about to win." You know it is bad when Nate is the one trying to delay the fighting. How many people are there, anyway? He attempts a quick telepathic mind-count. Nate frowns, "hold on," pause, "crap, it must be even larger underground. Most of the people there is not on the surface." "So uh yeah what Nate said. Try about three sub basements with lots of ugly dudes down there. Lots. I don't think it is a good idea to send in anyone alone. 'Cept me of course." Flash of large smile more of his joking but Superboy is kind of serious. "I can distract maybe with someone else like say uh Velocity or Siege while the rest sneak in? Because it looks nasty in there and I don't see Spartan." "Oh! Wait..." Superboy's head tips to the side and it looks like hes visibly trying to see around something but can't. "One place in there I can't see in to. Maybe thats where they're keeping the Cap'n?" "Underground, give me a second..." Jeffrey concentrates, undoing his mental block on his senses of vibration, movement, his awareness of the ground beneath them. Hopefully give a slightly more accurate count and a bit of the underground 'topography'. "I'll take the low road. Superboy can cause a ruckus, the rest infiltrate. Standing around isn't gonna help." He leans down, his hands offer to lift Rose up over the fence. "You ladies want a leg up, nows the time." Ravager pauses, turning and folding her arms over her chest, a hip thrust to the side as the poised stand of impatience shows as dominant now, fingetips tapping a merry little annoyed tune along her bicep. "I'm not standing look out on this forsaken desert of hell, figure it out brains, brawn, and powerballs or I am going to do this my way and find the stairs down." When Jeff offers her assistance to climb a fence she look at him incredulously, she meant the tower where the few men stood post above. Sighing one hand delves into her tac belt and withdraws a grappling gun, pointing it skyward and towards a towers ledge, firing it off with a silent slip of the cord against metal in its fast paced fire to its target. Simultaneously she draws a sword with her other hand and does a slight jump that lands one booted foot into Jeff's offered hand of aid, using it as a -boost' to send her form zipping up quickly along the tower, feet meeting the wall and pushing her up at a rapid pace. ravager is tired of standing there, she's taking topside - ready or not. Highroad, low road.. through the front door.. it really didn't matter which route she fell in on as she didn't have the out-and-out power to be the battering ram that went knocking on the door. At the detailing reports of the site's population she cast a glance between the power three before nodding her head after Rose. "The rumble rose is apparently an on top sort, you guys have rough specs for whats underneath but what's she going to need for back up?" So yea, the grappling hook and skywards climb was awesome, but she more a feet on the ground type of girl. "I'll cause a fuss if we need a distraction, or something scouted... I'm guessing most of the surface is light gaurds?" Bob, weave and serpentine should cover most of that and hopefully the hidden room wasn't too many levels down to get too. The guards in the tower have managed not to notice any of the chit chat occurring under the tower proper, likely due to the still loud machinery noise coming from the plant in the distance. It's an oversight they'll never be able to fully understand as they are caught flatfooted by Ravager's entrance. Siege will find that subbasements are made of a great many things, mostly though they're made of reinforced concrete, which is to say concrete with metal rebar crossing through it on all sides. "Oh, alright, simplest plans are the best anyway," Nate looks a Jeff, "can you take me down, Siege? The others can have their fun up here while we look for Jack underground. I will keep in touch with them by telepathy." Or he will try to. Real team mind-links are something he is planning to learn next summer. "And she is off... I'm down for simple. Time to party Stormwatch." Superboy says excitedly before launching himself heavenly with a powerful lunge that turns him in to little more than a speck in the distance above them. Once he is clear and above Kuwait and almost hovering in free fall he turns around and belts out with those super strong lungs, "LEEEEEEEEEEEEROY JEEEEENKiiiiiiiiNNNNNSSS!" His voice an explosive shout that heralds his plummet earthward the air actually visibly separating around him as he propels himself towards the planet his sole intention is to land in the middle of the 'fortress' with a resounding crack boom as earth around him will spider-web out and the Boy of Steel will be standing in the very center of it all - ground zero and all that fun jazz. A place he rather enjoys most days. Before shrapnel and earth erupt around him the Kryptonian can be seen grinning, he loves this sort of thing. Besides they're saving his friend and mentor, the android he's grown rather fond of and they're going to pay for taking one of his teammates away from them. Ravager's first move is quick, clearing the ledge one leg snaps out to attempt to land a booted foot against one's jaw, the hand bearing the sword sweeps upward in that leaned over position, her body twisting over and upward, and just as Kon impacts and creates ground zero her hilt is rammed upward into the second mans sternum, using the flat of her blade as a lever between his legs while she spins. Snapping around she uses that momentum to hopefully lob one man over the ledge of the tower. "Man down!" Ravager says with a smile as she regains to narrow her gaze on the man remaining if the other plummeted to the cracked and sun scorched earth. Jeffrey nods, pushing against the ground below him. The ground beneath them shifts, sand shifting and bedrock cracking beneath him. This, combined with a molecular shift has him digging quite an impressive 'hole' for Nate to follow him into, while using that same terrakineseis to hold the foundations on either side. "The molecular shift only really works for me, but I figure this is a good enough substitute." Really, even if he can't tell just how many people are down there, maybe he can at least tell how far down he needs to go. "Basement Level 6. Secret projects, heavy armored/experimental weaponized guards, possible robot supersoldier CEO." Then the switch flips. All grave seriousness now as the ceramic titan once again casts out his sensory awareness one he hits basement. "Alright spook, lets do this." Take goodness for the extra quick perrception, because at moments like this she was all too happy to not be missing a beat. Tne battle bunny ballet, the super-jump of doom and now the terra-express. There was never going to be a normal day with this crew and Velocity smiled all the more for it as she shook her head. "tshh.. the battle cry of geeks everywhere. well... meep meep bishes!" catching the shifting earth , she spun and took a darting run for the mounded up earth to tail after the monolith. Looked like brains and brawn were getting the added fun of quick wit and charming Kevlar wrapped personality. Superboy's ... unique leaping draws the eye of everyone, and his impact causes klaxon's to sound complex wide. Rose's guards never stood a chance, between being unaware of her appearance and distracted by the half human cannon ball, one man falls from the tower with a cry of shock while the other is on his knees his eyes rolling back into his head before he slumps slowly over backwards. Well that was easy. Was being the operative word. The sudden THUDTHUDTHUDTHUD of heavy auto weaponry fills the air as large cannons are swung from every tower with a clear shot, and focused in on Superboy's position, sending a literal hail of steel cored lead his direction, instantly burying him from sight in a cloud of dust kicked up by ricochetes and shear kinetic bleed off while fist sized div-its begin kicking up bits of packed earth just outside the cloud's diameter. Men in boots and uniforms are shouting, running, finding cover and higher spots in various windows to gain lines of fire... This place is huge, and there are /lots/ of security men with /lots/ of guns. Still, the shock of the surprise attack has more scrambling and confusion then real combat happening so far. Velocity disappears into the hole with Nate and Siege just in time to live through the fun experience of being buried alive ... ... ... No one's claustrophobic, right? When Jeff reaches the subbasement floor, he finds the concrete and with a few seconds concentration, wills the rebar reinforced substance to make a hole. There's a click and a soft electric hum in the room beyond. Nate keeps up with Jeff, scanning ahead quietly. There is something odd with the people ahead, like out of focus, psychically speaking. No, it does not make sense to him either. "Alright, let me see if I can find something to volunteer a map for us," he mutters, grabbing the closest mind for a semi-deep scan. Looking mostly for 'kidnapped robots' and alternatively 'places where something weird must be going on' and also 'person who is the boss and where he/she is'. The basics. "And hi, Vel. Nice to have you down here. Up for some quick recon?" Shock and awe. Exactly what Superboy was aiming for when he turned himself in to a living artillery strike. That beautiful drumbeat of auto cannon fire masks any noise the others would be making right now beyond the telepathic; Superboy disappears in a rain of distortion, fire, eruptions, pounding bombardment of live fire; his forearms crossing up over his face as he braces himself - plums of smoke bursting up around him and beginning to clear before a surge of movement has him slinging himself to one of the towers and physically grabbing ahold of a large barrel and peeling it free of it's emplacement with sheer strength alone. The ripping metal on metal sounds joining the orchestra of chaos springing from that same bunker he launches himself at another. His eyes flaring up and gleaming red as the Kryptonian unleashes like some beast of battle. He'd make someone like Zod proud right now. Minus all the killing this is purely property damage. Now that Jeff/Siege has a lot less in the way, he resumes with seeing what kind of vibro-ping he can pick up. "I really gotta get better reception." He mumbles. Still, ideally the floor is hard enough for him to phase through in the short term if need be. He runs interference for the telepath and the speedster, making sure he can shift through the ground fast enough to take any oncoming fire. "Yeah, its a bit too...quiet in here. Too many eggheads and maintenance types. Not enough...I dunno, big bads?" Well, excusing the mooks upstairs. Which Jeffrey may phase upwards to help with if Kon and Rose need help with extraction. He grunts, closing the hole they came through lest they be deluged in sand and dirt. From the tower Ravager stands over the one man, the single sword leveled out to him as he drops, twisting her wrist to sheath it and lower to a crouch as the open fire assault on Superboy begins. He can handle that on his own. But for now she is searching the body of the lone guard, stripping him of anything useful while gathering her grappling gun and pushing the release to wind it back in and clip it to her belt. One step, two... She was about to go back over the edge and move from tower to tower, but the time that would take on foot. Stopping her back is turned to that 30 caliber on a stand in the tower, peering over her shoulder at it she turns and grabs it, swiveling it on its stand to aim at the tower nearest her, bracing herself and opening fire, covering ground and playing back up while Superboy rips things out from the root. Red flew in nod and a swivel as she watched the ground close in and the tunnel advance forward in a matter of inches and feet rather than the open space they'd just left behind. Nope no fear of tiny places here... not at all. Nevermind that half the earthen hallway was taken up by the stony giant. Breath, just breath. V really did need to get some of those nifty gadgets out of the lab - maybe put together a nice utility belt. Seemed to work for Batman and Robin. Wasn't an one way rabbit hole at least... Could a red-head be Alice? Maybe. "Quick is what I Nate.. just point out the path and keep me away from too many things that go bang-bang." So it might be that she was playing the part of the white rabbit now as she readies to slip passed the two and into the subbasement, all the while the dull thuds of Wonderlad echoing down through earth and substructure. Topside, the gunfire only increases as the seconds tick by, and as one tower falls beneath Kon's bare hands, a second's concrete foundations being eaten away by his heat vision, the security forces start to coalesce into something less reactionary and more dangerous. Unable to distinguish the sounds amid the hammering of gunfire and loud machinery and warning klaxon, there's nothing to warn Superboy as the world around him explodes in literal waves of concussive energy and shrapnel, enough to pulp the concrete wall he stands next to. Rose, moments after spraying the interior walls of the tower next to her with the red soup that used to be it's housed guards, will spot a trio of soldiers manning an MK 19 pouring explosive death into Kon with reckless abandon. Made all the more reckless as the high explosive rounds ignite the barrels of oil Superboy is standing near, washing him in black toxic smoke thick enough to condensate on his skin before bursting into flame, turning him into a man shaped candle. Whoever these security types are... they're not fucking around. Nate reaches out for a mind as Jeff closes the hole... and he finds something hard to grip, to hold onto. Like trying to grasp an eel with his bare hands. Coated in cooking oil. Velocity zips into the subbasement and realizes... it's massive. Not in height, but in size, and built like a maze. As she zips out of the room they tunneled into, a sort of storage closet, and out into the hall, she runs, literally, smack into a mountain of green leathery flesh. Eight feet tall, with four eyes, and four arms, built not unlike some of the larger mutants she's seen, it's four eyed gaze lowers on her as it's lips pull back from a maw of fangs. One of the hands comes up, holding some form of energy weapon, <<.........>> it says, it's voice reverberating in Carin's mind as much as her ears, and none of it in a language she can even sound out much less understand. A beam of energy a foot tall and three inches wide fires from one of the weapons the monster holds, lancing towards Carin with heat enough to literally melt stone and metal into glowing pinkish red liquid. A new klaxon sounds, and this time it's not the sort from speakers, it's loud, alien, and vocal. Huh. So /that's/ what Kon meant when he said the guys in the lower tunnels were 'ugly'... Nate hops to the room ahead, managing to be fairly stealthy and all. Not that it is very useful when Carin runs into the four-armed green guy, and the alarms fire off. "So much for the stealthy approach. And on top of it, they have weird alien minds." Still minds, though, so he can hit them. Before he starts, though, he sends a message to Conner and Rose |I hope you are having fun, there are alien guys here and none too friendly. Feel free to join us whenever|. Then to Jeff, "lets help Carin, we need her searching this place quickly, and not getting shot." Jeffrey nods. "Less mind poking and more frying, I think. Somehow I get the feeling these aren't the negotiating types like you see on Star Trek. Alright. I got an idea." He then shifts through the ground, his body breaking up into its now stone and concrete and terra cotta base elements, tunneling through the floor until he reaches Velocity and her new 'friends'. As she runs, he tries to lift barriers of the ground beneath them to at least stop a handful of the aliens shots using one hands focus, the other churning and warping the ground beneath the aliens into a quicksand-like consistency. The goal, of course, is to keep them busy, maybe to get them to shoot at him. The man of stone and rock grunts with the exertion, but there might even be a smile somewhere in that facsimile of a human form. "Sorry gentlemen, I really am. Unfortunately, its the job, you see." Ravager is the queen of bringing knives to a gun fiught, it always seems to end up that way. The only guns she had were the two high tech lazer guns strapped to each thigh. Former property of NOWHERE and packing enough punch to knock someone like Superboy off his feet. The weapon she is manning she spins, looking through the target scope for where the grenades are coming from as she sees Superboy go up in flames, her jaw fluxing under the crushing of teeth in a determined set. And yet she is not wanted to kill?! What the hell was the logic? Reaching down she took another draw off the inhaler and stuffed it back in her belt as her blue gaze sweeps over the landscape surrounding, her heart pounding in her ears like the sound of thundering bullets around them, interrupted by a familiar voice. <> Ravager sends back with a sarcastic drive of adrenaline to emphasize the exclamation. Decision made she spots where that grenade launcher is firing from and steps back. A couple paces enough to touch the back of her thighs on the opposing ridge of the tower and push forward in a run, the grappling gun pulled and fired just as she leaps from the edge, aiming to hook into the scaffolding. A risk, but the adrenaline junky in her is willing to take it to swing out along the line that tenses and snaps, her form swept out over the top of the one story building, dropping down upon the roof in a crouch only to draw both her swords. <> Overconfident? Yep. Though Superboy may be 'well-done' by then. Grenades? Superboy scoffs at grenades that is until about forty of them pelt him with rapid fire in the face, neck, chest and yes, even the groin. The whumpwhumpwhump ending in glorious poppoppops each time they touch down the hellfire glow cast off around the blast zone enveloping Kon as he stumbles back arms wavering in the air as if it looks like he is being punched in rapid succession by the Juggernaut. Each grenade after that first barrage causing him to stumble and stagger like a boxer taking haymakers, wobbling to the left and right with his arms slackening to swing to-and-fro. Telepathic communication with Superboy only gets Christmas Story Ralphie-esque cursing as a response. So might be that a rabbit hole was better then the fire she'd jumped out into... one room, one door, an alien and a hop skip and jump later she stood sharing a moment with the ugly green thing as they both starred at the melty hole in the wall where she should've been standing and playing the part of a very grilled cheesy Carin. Instead her costume smoked in a smolter on one side where that lazer had been dodged only by fractions of a second. "That is completely not cool!" Remembering that the big mean thing was still in the room though she glanced up at it and crused booking it stage left and down the hall making every darting move as careful and percise as she could in an unknown series of turns and doors. ..Spartan, be down here. better so be down here! The alien creature doesn't pause to consider the miss. It merely continues to fire with both of the weapons it holds, causing basketball sized holes to appear in walls as a gallon or more of metal and stone is turned into glowing smoking fluid with every shot. Then there's a wall with a face, and it's feet are stuck... It's thicker arms reach out, claws digging into the stone like it were clay and ripping out massive chunks even as it's weapon pour fire into the obstruction, shooting at the face in particular. Jesus the thing is strong. It flails, it's tail lashing out with enough force to crack the wall where it lands. Soon there are two, three, a dozen, and they press forward against the impediments that Siege places in their way, undaunted, spittle and foam at the corners of their drooling maws. They appear to have lost the majority of their reason in lue of rage. Velocity's blurring form manages to blow past a group of ten much smaller alien monsters, more lean and with more spines, so quickly they all look up and ask quizzical questions to one another confusedly before returning to their work. It's only moments late she comes to a skidding stop. Wait. What was that back there? A quick backtrack shows her a great black door with caution markings on it and a small window set about six feet high. It's construction seems similar, she's recently seen something very much like it back at Halo... More barrels of oil explode around Superboy, the excessive heat, the toxic air, clinging to him as the force of repeated explosions continues to force him back on his heels. What towers still have shots turn their mounted weapons into the smoke, firing blindly into it, trying to add their weapons to the deluge. Nate makes a last attempt to mind-scan one of the Daemonites and grumbles some curses. They are not /that/ alien, he has seen worse, he could almost make sense of them. If he had half an hour... but that is an eternity in a battle. He hopes Carin can find Spartan, meanwhile he will try to draw some attention off her. He starts hitting the minds on her way with telepathic bolts of varied effect, since he is not putting too much force on them and the alien mental structure is unfamiliar. He is also looking for... something. Maybe a lab, or a cell. It is sheet luck he is the one to find the remains of Spartan. And he is able to recognize them because he saw the other Spartan torn to pieces and without human-like skin at Halo. "Void, Void? I think I found him!" He calls through the com-link What is left of him, at least. The head and the upper torso of the robot. The skin is all missing, as are it's arms and legs, and it's metallic spine is dangling out of it's chest cavity towards where it's guts should be. There are wires and tubes plugged into it, flashing with lights, as if they pulling stuff out of it. |Folks| he addresses the whole team. |I have Jack. He looks bad and I am taking him out of here, since there is something blocking Void's teleporting. If you find Helspont, give him a kick in the teeth for me.| A telekinetic bubble forms around him and the remains of Spartan, and then he blasts upwards with all his power, craving a way to the surface, where the blasts erupts from the ground as a column of light. A second later the bubble flies up through the crumbling hole and into the sky. It's almost that point in time where the overzealous Superboy can be heard croaking out a mental, |Need some help| An odd request to hear from the Boy of Steel but he is entirely suppressed by the continuous stream of munitions. The MK-19 being the worst of it as it's keeping him dazed. Eventually they'll reload? He can't tell, not with the oil based explosions around him or the continued hammering from the auto turrets. At this point all he can do is cover himself and try to squint out of one blue eye past the bar of his limbs to try and pick out a target; a near impossible thing with the carnage. Spartan discovered? |Great job, Nate. We got your back.| A snarl from and Superboy launches himself upwards again soaring through the air to try and relocate out from under that barrage. Clouds blooming like flowers in the air behind and around him as he tries to evade zigging and zagging with superhuman speed but trapped maintaining momentum, unable to stop his pace as he is forced on to go completely D. Once these nests are clear they should be able to help the others. He's at least pulling good aggro and distraction for Rose. Ravager is moving in a low crouched slink along the rooftop, following by the sounds as well as the concussive vibrations to find where she needed to be. One sword is re-sheathed, the roof clear and her next target was only ten feet below her firing at Superboy from the window with those grenades. Her hand slides to her belt, pulling that hook free again and tossing it towards the opposing ledge of the roof, pullin it tight to ensure a hold and /just enough give/.... Pushing from the roof top she shoots straight out in a timed roll of the succession of grenade fire to give her the -very- brief gap required. Her free hand reaches back and tugs the cord, the release and rewind of it whipping her back just as her body begins descent towards the ground in tim to force her body through the window below, both feet kicked out and the sword sweeping out in an upward arch towards one of the men as her feet sweep at another just before she hits the ground in a tuck and roll, drawing her other sword free as her feet regain beneath her. "I'll be taking that. Thanks." A face and a body, thank you very much. Not that he particularly enjoys being shot in the face, but at least his armored form gives him a reasonable defense as he brings up his arms as he absorbs more of the ground beneath him into his armored frame, vaporized layered ceramic flaking off as new armor is replaced. This isn't like the god damned ship, he can take as much material from beneath him as he likes. They should be enraged, and a bit scared. They are trapped with a terrakinetic /underground/. The barriers and impediments continue to raise at bizarre angles, but most of them working to limit the fields of fire that any with the presence of mind to shoot would have. All the while, the ground beneath the alien monstrosities re-solidifies...hardens, and suddenly riots forward like a vicious spear wall, impaling some of the unlucky ones as Siege puts his arms up, protecting his face. Its mentally exhausting, but he catches Superboy's message. |I know you can hold up for a little longer, Kid Steel. I just gotta deal with what we've woken up in the Depths.| Still, now that Spartan has been retrieved, he falls back, barriers and spines of earth raising in attempt to cull or otherwise prevent pursuit. "Time to go, Velo! We're needed topside, and we really don't need to play around much more with these guys. |Two minutes. Its always a little harder to tunnel up than down.| He promises. "Up, up and away I guess." Velocity passed a short second like a long moment in her own time warp as she watched Nate and the shell of Spartan disappear through the tear in the subbasement. The mission successful, but now she and the others were left in the rubble to clean up and get out of..whatever this monstrous creatures were. Thanks Nate, next time..leave via bubble /through/ the enemies. There isn't time right now to re-plan the best attack strategy though. Somewhere beyond the swarm of aliens she could her combat, and something like earth grating on earth. Hopefully that meant Seige was winning. What she was looking at was a different story though.. the best and worst of Hollywood sci-fi was now skittering through the hallway in her direction.. Lizard like monsters vanished into thin air as other moved with reflexes she was becoming hard pressed to match all in a deadly and leathery dance. "Guess this is was we're been trained for." She had to get back to the team..Siege first and then to the others if they could. Pressing herself she moved to dodge and dance around the lashings of tails and claws.. a series of leaps and rolls leaving a blurred set of after images that to any looking on would seem like she was multiplying herself and hopefully be helping to confuse some of these uglies as she made her way to Jeff. "Too many, tank! Time to retreat!" The pair of men manning the MK are not prepared for what comes through the window. One, attaching the belt from the next ammo box to the tail end of the belt currently passing /through/ the MK, never has a chance. He never even looks up as the sword passes through all the important bits in his neck, leaving him slumping over the ammunition as he bleeds. His partner catches Rose's boot with his face, shattering his nose and losing a couple teeth in the process, his body bowls over backward unconscious before he even hits the floor eyes rolling up in his head. For the first time in what seems like a long time, Kon is no longer buffeted by explosions, a respite, short lived as it is likely to be, is welcome. As he sails through the air, smoke and bits of flaming oil dropping from him like rain, Superboy comes to a new realization... He really hopes one of the soldiers down there is his size because he needs new pants. Old pants. Just pants. Period. Three of the monsters catch spines that burrow through their flesh, blueish green gore splattering everything... they don't stop coming, pushing forward further until they drive the spines through them and eventually expire upon them. The others merely use the bodies of their comrades as warnings. Some swat the spines out of their way with their larger limbs, shattering the stone, others leap them as best they can, more take hits that injure but don't stop them, and they continue on anyway, leaking blood in their wake. A wall is barreled /through/ even as it's starting to solidify, catching the alien half in and half out of it, leaving him struggling inside the wall, his arms pummeling the stone as he tries to break enough off to escape. Further down the hall, Siege can hear more approaching but they are slowed further by the blocking forms of their impaled kin and the continual obstacles thrown in their path. Velocity faces almost a dozen of the smaller Daem, much faster, more cunning, and covered in spines, they hunt her through the hall with agility and combat skill the other's lacked. Where the larger monsters were brute force and unstoppable rage, these coordinate their attacks almost perfectly, tails and limbs lashing with blurring speed, hisses and leaps timed with exceptional skill. If Velocity were any slower they would have dragged her to the ground long ago, as it is the small cadre of Daemonite still stand between her and Siege, leaving the terrakinetic boxed in on both sides. They really should be going now, because if the sounds coming from above are any indication, the two groups of aliens have called for reinforcements. New outfit ruined! Fuck pants Superboy will moon all of this Daemonite army it is GTFO time. |Let's get out of here guys. We got what we came for.| No longer under constant suppressive fire Superboy obliterates two close turrets and chucks a military issue jeep at a grouping of men (It was lobbed high so they have time to scatter) able to spot the bright white hair and home in on Rose's position he bounds over next to her and lifts her up over his shoulder. "Your taxi has arrived. Also thanks for the save, my turn now." |Siege, Velocity we're out.| Which they are, Superboy is actually flying. Something the team knows he isn't all great with but still manages. Blademistress in hand he soars over Kuwait and lets them revel in the sight of Super dangly bits. It matters not right now. What matters is they're getting out of dodge. |Affirmative. Redeploying to dropzone.| Jeffrey looks back towards where Velocity has joined him. While he tries to focus on one side blocked, leaving them with the smaller and cleverer ones. Faster, maybe. But this is still his sandbox. Still, being surrounded is hardly a pleasant thing and Siege decides to /burn rubber/, or ground, so the saying goes. Instead of the quicksand, the slow sinking, the whole of the ground beneath Velocity's playmates /SCHLOOPS!/ and collapses on itself, creating a rather impressive sinkhole. Jeff continues to advance, rising spines and fists attempting to catch any that survive what he called in Venezuela the 'Antlion Special'. Not that he particularly enjoys it, since its more of a one shot pony, but hopefully it will give them enough breathing room for Jeff to start tunneling out with the speedster behind him. "Velo, watch our backs. I can deal with some of them, but right now I gotta get us topside." Priorities, you see, as he starts reworking the Earth itself to get them the hell out of Dodge. Ravager stood there for a moment, the red visceral remnants of the decapitated one spattering through the air and onto her like a mentally warped Rorschach, though slowed it would have almost seemed she is standing in falling rose petals. For that heartbeat (her several), she stared and then moved forward, gripping the grenade launcher and turning it on those remaining that launched more of those toxins at Superboy, but not stopping there. She was aiming also for any remaining standing towers, any other buildings, wanting to level the encampment that had held her teammate and was trying to kill others - wanting to cripple them... Though this gets interrupted by a half naked Superboy sweeping her up and swinging her over a shoulder. "No.. wait.. I want that...!" Ravager exclaims in regards to the Grenade Launcher, now finally looking down to get a very plain view of SuperAss that she tritely swats with the flat of her blade. Clearing her throat she attempts to re-situate herself in the positioning of dangling over his shoulder to rock back and... wow! Okay, pressing her hands against his chest and keeping arms length between them she just finds something to focus on elsewhere. "Hey Kon doesn't that cloud look like your..." Superboy releases a sound that almost comes across as a 'squak' as his backside gets swatted. Due to this and the striking awareness he is now naked from the ribs on down he fumbles with Ravager and she begins to drop and swing in his arms which only comically places her closer to where she is trying to avoid, in a frantic scramble of embarrassed juggling they finally situate and the crimson faced Kryptonian yells out, "MY NOSE THE CLOUD LOOKS LIKE MY NOSE! SHUT UP Rose!" "And stop with the sword. Just keep your eyes on the horizon and lets hurry up and get to that rendezvous point." If he could turn any redder than he is now he would have to be adopted in to the evil Hulk family. The poor citizens of the small village below pointing up and shielding themselves at the spectacle. "So immature." "Hooah, boy." "Affirmative? Really? We've got to work on your... nevermind let's go!" Grabbing for the nearest weapon she could, V made use of one of those discarded spines and goes a la bo-staff with with. Twacking and spearing at anything getting too close the pointy end get stuck in the grasping arm of one of the Damonites before she scoots up back-to-back with the ceramic soldier. "Hate to put any pressure on you...but I'm not the toy wielding killing machine or the super clone... We /really/ need to go! Dive, Dive!" With that she offered kick to one head as it got to close nad curse another blue streak at her com in hopes the signal would finally get through to Void.. Note: Steal Spartan's tech...and never leave home without it AGAIN! Category:Log